EC
1244
MySQLERRORCriticalServer AdministrationHIGH confidence

Help database is corrupt or does not exist

Production Risk

Low — only affects the HELP command; no production data affected.

What this means

ER_CORRUPT_HELP_DB (1244, SQLSTATE HY000) is raised when the HELP command is executed but the MySQL help tables (in the mysql schema) are missing, empty, or corrupt.

Why it happens
  1. 1MySQL installed without populating the help tables
  2. 2mysql.help_* tables were dropped or truncated
  3. 3Upgrade did not update the help tables
How to reproduce
trigger — this will error
trigger — this will error
HELP SELECT;  -- ERROR 1244 if help tables are missing

expected output

ERROR 1244 (HY000): The MySQL help database is corrupt or does not exist

Fix

Reload the help tables

Reload the help tables
-- Run from OS shell:
mysql -u root -p mysql < /usr/share/mysql/fill_help_tables.sql

Why this works

The fill_help_tables.sql script re-populates the mysql.help_* tables from the MySQL installation.

Sources
Official documentation ↗

MySQL 8.0 — 1244 ER_CORRUPT_HELP_DB

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